GM has announced that it has awarded two contracts to produce the high-tech packs: one to a partnership between Johnson Controls and Saft Advanced Power Solutions, the other to Cobasys—a Michigan-based joint venture between Chevron Technology Ventures and Energy Conversion Devices—that will work with A123Systems in Watertown, Mass., to develop the packs. Johnson Controls-Saft will begin testing their pack on prototype Saturn Green Lines later this year.

GM's director of hybrid energy storage systems, Denise Gray, says the companies will be challenged to prove the durability, reliability and potential cost at mass volumes of their technology. —Ben Stewart